Carceral Expansion and Private Sector Involvement: The Impact of a Mega Prison on the Local Community- The case of HMP Berwyn, Wrexham, North Wales

• In Event: Prison Working Group: Prison design and housing conditions: Implications for detained persons, policymakers, and the community

Abstract

This paper aims to present preliminary findings from an investigation into the impact of the opening of a mega prison on a local community. The project aims to explore the local economic and social impacts that arise directly from the establishment of a ‘mega prison’ and in particular, the increasing volume and pivotal role that private companies now have in the building and running of prisons and the consequences of this on local communities, economies and services.
The project focusses on a selected site (HMP Berwyn, Wrexham, North Wales) which is a Category C adult male prison and is the largest prison in the UK and opened in February 2017. The UK ‘mega prison’ building programme has since 2012, been promoted as a fiscal stimulus opportunity to attract private investment to areas from which the state has divested (Panchami, 2012; Corcoran, 2014). However local resources and services are absorbed by the presence of prisons. There is doubt that prisons can offer viable economic and social development for rural economies, in particular those communities that are experiencing high levels of poverty and deprivation.
This paper seeks to examine how local economies and services begin to reshape around the needs of such a large prison and what impact this has on the community surrounding it.

Author

• Emily Luise Hart, Leeds Beckett University